- DI Fred Thursday: Funny, it will be twenty-eight years tomorrow since I joined the job. Twenty-eight years to the day, except in the war, of course. All this with the merger put me out of sorts, got me thinking less ahead than behind. I forgot for a minute, it's not about me. It's about them who turn to us for help in time of need: weak, defenseless, old young - especially the young.
- DC Endeavour Morse: Does that mean you've reconsidered?
- DI Fred Thursday: Win would never put up with me under her feet all day. Nah, I was born a copper... and I'll die one I expect.
- DC Endeavour Morse: Ensanguining the skies, how heavily it dies, into the West, away, past touch and sight and sound, not further to be found. How hopeless underground, falls the remorseful day.
- DI Fred Thursday: You know there's no cavalry coming, still time. I won't think the less.
- DC Endeavour Morse: [Shakes head]
- DI Fred Thursday: Till the end then?
- DC Endeavour Morse: Till the end.
- DS Peter Jakes: [entering council flats] Bloody place. Turns my guts. Bleach, sweat, boiled cabbage. And everything on tick. Neverneverland.
- DC Endeavour Morse: [confronting Strange with the conflict between his Masonic connections and his duty as a policeman] I told you one day you'd have to choose. Today's that day.
- DI Fred Thursday: [sarcastically, to the disliked DI Chard] Did you want anything in particular, Hugh, or did you just drop by to admire the furnishings?
- [first lines]
- Henry Portmore: At the Round Table there was one seat kept always vacant, reserved by Merlin for the knight destined to claim the Grail and heal the wounded land. The seat was named The Siege Perilous for should any other dare sit therein, it held only death.
- PC Jim Strange: [revealing that DI Chard is likely to get promoted over Thursday] Oh, the old man won't like that - answering to the likes of Chard!
- [he realizes that Thursday is behind him]
- DI Fred Thursday: Loose lips, constable. And less of the "old", if you don't mind.
- DI Fred Thursday: [sarcastically, to Chard] What's brought you above ground? Didn't think the night watch could venture out in daylight.
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: Hasn't anyone ever told you the policeman is your friend?
- Tommy Cork: That's not what my dad says.
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: No?
- Tommy Cork: No. He says you're all bastards.
- [last lines]
- DI Gregson: DC Morse?
- DC Endeavour Morse: Yes?
- DI Gregson: My name is Detective Inspector Gregson of Kidlington CID. Endeavour Morse, I am arresting you for the murder of Chief Constable Rupert Standish.
- DC Endeavour Morse: You're arresting me!
- DI Gregson: You do not have to say anything...
- DC Endeavour Morse: You're...
- DI Gregson: But anything you say will be taken down...
- DC Endeavour Morse: You've made a mistake.
- DI Gregson: and can be used in evidence.
- DC Endeavour Morse: Some kind of a mistake.
- DI Gregson: Take him inside.
- DC Endeavour Morse: [as he is marched away] Get your hands off me. You've made a mistake. Take your hands off me. I'm innocent. I can't go; the boy's here.
- Dr. Max DeBryn: [after examining the stomach contents of the murdered journalist] He went with a gutful of scotch - which must have pleased his duodenal ulcer no end.
- DI Bart Church: [pressed by Thursday for information] I don't know, Fred. Some things in our game... "Sleeping dogs"...
- DI Fred Thursday: What does that mean?
- DI Bart Church: It means I'm taking a risk even talking to you.
- Dr. Max DeBryn: [examining the corpse of Eric Patterson] Dead about 36 hours. No obvious sign of injury. A glancing blow to the skull, perhaps . Or... he fell from the train? He could have leant out of the window, doors came open and goodnight, Irene.
- DI Fred Thursday: [pointing his pistol at a shadowy intruder in Blenheim Vale, he realizes it's Morse] That could have been nasty.
- DC Endeavour Morse: Sir - it's a set-up!
- DI Fred Thursday: [indicating his gun] I figured as much. I don't usually carry this for a friendly chat.
- DC Endeavour Morse: But you came anyway.
- DC Endeavour Morse: [alarmed about the extent of the conspiracy] Deare said it went deeper and wider than we knew. What if it goes higher, too?
- DI Fred Thursday: [laconic] Then you'd better mind how you go.
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: [discussing the amalgamation] Brave new world, Thursday.
- DI Fred Thursday: Sir?
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: This Thames Valley business. I was talking to Chief Constable Standish at the Widows and Orphans. Division has been very impressed with my paper on the amalgamation.
- DI Fred Thursday: The one Morse wrote up, sir?
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: [prickly] Typed, I think you'll find, from my prepared notes.
- DI Fred Thursday: [conciliatory] Of course, sir. A figure of speech.
- DC Endeavour Morse: Mr Landesman?
- Josiah Landesman: Detective Constable...
- DC Endeavour Morse: Morse.
- Josiah Landesman: Do you know Chief Constable Standish, I take it? And Detective Inspector Chard?
- Chief Constable Rupert Standish: Detective Constable, what's this about?
- DC Endeavour Morse: It's pursuant to an enquiry into the murder of George Aldridge, sir. He's the escapee from Farnleigh Open Prison. Did you know him, Mr Landesman?
- Josiah Landesman: I'm afraid, as a rule, I don't seek the society of habitual criminals. Present company...
- [laughter]
- DC Endeavour Morse: He was at Blenheim Vale in the late '40s, early '50s.
- Josiah Landesman: Constable, I buy, sell and develop properties. Profit and loss. That's as far as my interest extends. The history of a place? Who lived there? I'm afraid that's... that's none of my business.
- Chief Constable Rupert Standish: Unless there was anything else you wanted to ask, Constable?
- DC Endeavour Morse: No, Chief Constable Standish, DI Chard. That was all, sir. I'm sorry to have interrupted your game.
- Alderman Gerald Wintergreen: Do I detect a note of rebuke? You want to watch that, Rupe.
- Chief Constable Rupert Standish: Come on, Gerry. He's only doing his job.
- Alderman Gerald Wintergreen: I am a man of considerable private means, Inspector. But I'll tell you what I put a price on far beyond rubies. My good name. Now, you say I would put this at risk. For what? A pocketful of change?
- [He chuckles]
- Alderman Gerald Wintergreen: Really.
- Joan Thursday: New scarf?
- [Morse looks at her unsure of what she's said]
- Joan Thursday: Scarf, new?
- DC Endeavour Morse: Yes.
- Joan Thursday: Where's that from then?
- DC Endeavour Morse: Burridges by the label.
- Joan Thursday: You're very literal.
- DC Endeavour Morse: It's a failing.
- DI Fred Thursday: [warning Morse] You'll be all right as long as I'm here, but when it comes to "vindictive", DI Chard's in a league of his own!
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: [ordering Tommy Cork's return to his family] This is a police station, not a creche.
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: The job takes its toll, Thursday. Only so many years of active service in any of us.
- DI Fred Thursday: I'm good for a while yet.
- Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright: I'd hope so too. But one can't fight the natural way of things. The old order changeth. Younger, fitter men come along. And wisdom and experience can be put to use in other ways.